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Cleveland, Ohio.- A gritty effort from Alec Richards and some timely scoring from Brandon Saad helped lift the Rockford IceHogs over the Lake Erie Monsters 4-2 on Friday at the Quicken Loans Arena.

Tied 2-2 in the third period, Saad picked up an Adam Clendening pass in the neutral zone and worked his way to the Lake Erie side of the ice. From just inside the faceoff circle to the left of Sami Aittokallio, Saad sniped his fourth goal of the season over the Monsters goalie at 10:40 of the final frame.

Rockford and Richards had to stave off a 1:28 of a two man penalty kill moments later and Andrew Shaw dumped in an empty net goal to seal it for the IceHogs at 19:51. Richards made 30 saves in picking up his third win of the season.

For the second straight contest, Rockford notched a goal early in period one. On a power play, defenseman Nick Leddy blasted a Clendening pass past Aittokallio 1:07 into the opening stanza for his first goal of the season.

In the second period, Kyle Beach extended Rockford's lead to 2-0. Beach picked up a Brandon Pirri pass and with a Monster on his hip, knocked in his own rebound past Aittokallio 8:08 into the middle frame.

Lake Erie reduced their deficit to 2-1 with a power play goal at 12:37. Mike Sgarbossa found Luke Walker open on the back door where the winger hammered home his fifth goal of the season past a sprawled out Richards.

Then on a power play in the third period, Lake Erie would capitalize again to tie the game at 2-2. Tyson Barrie skated into the left face -off circle and let go his fifth marker on the season at 2:58 off of a pass from Thomas Pock.

Next Home Game: Tuesday, Nov. 27 vs. Texas Stars. Game time is 7:05 p.m. The IceHogs and Stars face off for the first time in 2012-13. It’s a WXRX Dollar Day as fans can get $1 hot dogs, soft drinks, beers, and companion tickets.